A merchant operates four self-fulfillment locations alongside vendor drop-shipping, but faces challenges when products transition between fulfillment methods. The main issue: enabling “Continue selling when out of stock” for drop-shipped items incorrectly shows in-store pickup availability.
Current workaround:
Custom product templates that remove pickup info and add drop-ship disclaimers
Creates confusion when items are actually in stock
Key questions raised:
How to efficiently toggle locations at the variant level?
Are there apps that handle delivery timing for products alternating between in-stock and drop-ship?
Would Shopify Flow template-switching based on stock levels work effectively?
Suggested solutions:
Shopify Flow (Plus only): Automate location updates and template switching based on inventory levels
Inventory management apps: “Stock Sync” for dynamic location assignments
Order Deadline app: Set estimated delivery times based on fulfillment location and stock status
AutoDS: More flexible inventory syncing and vendor rule management
Consensus: No perfect native solution exists. Flow-based automation is the cleanest Shopify-native approach for Plus merchants, though managing multiple templates can become complex with many variants. Third-party apps offer more flexibility but add costs.
Summarized with AI on October 23.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
We have four self fulfillment locations, and several of our vendors will drop ship. I have set up the vendors as locations in Shopify, to enable shipping calculation. Everything works fine as long as a product is either self fulfill, or vendor fulfill, but I have issues with products that transition between the two states. First off in order to drop ship an item this way I need to toggle on “Continue selling when out of stock” which makes products look available for in store pick up. My work around has been to create a template for these products that removes the in store pick up info from the buy block, and to insert a disclaimer that this product drop ships from the vendor with processing time. This is a little ugly when a product is actually in stock the product looks to be drop shipping. Support has been of little help around this issue, and suggests finding an app to add this function. All the apps I’ve seen around drop shipping are more about automating vendor ordering rather than fixing store front product operations. Here are my questions:
What is the easiest/most efficient way to turn on/off locations at the variant level?
Does anyone know of an app that fixes the issues around product delivery timing for products that are often in stock, but will drop ship otherwise?
It looks like my best native option would be to use flow to switch product templates based on variant stock, does anyone have feedback from using a flow like this?
I think you can use Shopify Flow (if u’re on Plus). You can create an automation that updates fulfillment locations based on stock levels. If a product is out of stock at self-fulfillment locations, it can automatically switch to drop shipping.
Or, using a third-party app like “Stock Sync”. This lets you dynamically update inventory and location assignments based on availability. While most drop shipping apps focus on automation, inventory management apps can help control location rules better.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect Shopify-native solution for this. But Order Deadline (an Shopify app) can let you set estimated delivery times based on fulfillment location and stock status. You can customize messaging dynamically for in-stock vs. drop-shipped items.
I think it’s good because it automates template switching, so your storefront messaging updates dynamically & works natively within Shopify, avoiding extra app costs.
But flow can only run on Shopify Plus, so it’s not an option for Basic/Advanced plans. If you have a lot of variants, managing multiple templates can become messy.
You’re right that Shopify doesn’t natively handle that transition between self-fulfillment and vendor fulfillment very cleanly. The toggle for “continue selling when out of stock” is usually the sticking point, since it forces you into a workaround with templates.
For the specific questions:
Shopify doesn’t allow you to enable/disable locations at the variant level natively, so your idea with Flow is probably the closest you’ll get without an app. Some merchants do set up flows to automatically swap product templates or add tags when stock hits zero, and that works decently well.
For apps, most “dropshipping” apps focus on vendor automation, but something like AutoDS could help since it gives you more flexible control over inventory syncing, vendor rules, and delivery expectations. You could use it to keep vendor stock and processing times updated without needing to manually toggle templates.
If you want to stay native, Flow + a smart template setup is workable, but if this happens often, an automation app like AutoDS (or a custom script through the API) will save you a lot of manual effort.